


What Almost Never Was

by mggislife2789



Category: Spencer Reid - Fandom
Genre: F/M, Preeclampsia, complicated pregnancy
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-09-27
Updated: 2016-09-27
Packaged: 2018-08-17 13:37:18
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,442
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8146013
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/mggislife2789/pseuds/mggislife2789
Summary: The story of a complicated pregnancy, during which the reader and Spencer are forced to confront their deepest fears.Disclaimer: I don't own any of these characters or their original stories. This is only for fun. It's where my brain goes after the credits roll. No copyright intended. Better safe than sorry. ;)





	

Spencer and his wife, Y/N, had been trying to start a family for the past few months and just recently, they found out they were expecting. Today was their first appointment with the OBGYN, and the first-time parents were noticeably nervous.

“Ready, Y/N?” Spencer asked, placing his hand on her lower back.

“As I’ll ever be, Spence. Let’s go,” she said, grabbing his hand to make their way back to the exam room. 

Lying on the table with her stomach exposed and her husband beside her, Y/N felt her heart beat faster and faster. She was carrying a little life inside her and the thought that she had to house this little being until it was born was definitely a much bigger deal than people made it out to be. She so badly wanted this baby to be healthy and happy.

“Good morning, Dr. and Mrs. Reid,” Dr. Boucher greeted as she stepped through the door with a smile on her face. “Ready to see your baby?”

Spencer smiled wide, believing he was never going to be this lucky. “Absolutely,” he beamed, grasping his wife’s hand.

The obstetrician spread the petroleum jelly across Y/N’s stomach and waved over it with the ultrasound wand as the first-time parents waited with bated breath for news of their baby. 

“So, just starting your family?” The doctor asked, examining the screen in front of her. “Hoping to have a big family?”

Y/N smiled. It’s one of the few things she wanted for as long as she could remember. To teach at a university and to have a big, healthy family. “Yes,” she said dreamily, “maybe three or four kids. Right, Spence?”

“Definitely.”

Dr. Boucher looked directly at the expecting parents with great news. “Well, you’re going to have an instant family. You’re having twins.”

Spencer and his wife looked at each either, ecstatic, dumbfounded and scared beyond all reason. Speechless was probably the word.

\--------------------

Having found out they were expecting twins nearly two months earlier, at just six weeks, the shock and joy was just starting to settle in. They had to adjust housing plans, the nursery layout, and they needed twice as much of everything they had planned on - but none of that mattered. They were getting the family they always dreamed of. Y/N was due for another check-up at the doctor’s office.

“Fourteen weeks,” Y/N breathed, rubbing her ever-growing stomach. “Only 20-something weeks to go.”

Spencer laughed as he placed his hand on her stomach, hoping they would be able to get news of the babies’ genders today. They walked into the doctor’s office yet again, they would practically be living there until she gave birth, and Y/N assumed her position on the table, with her shirt up over her stomach.

Y/N had grown used to the cold jelly and wand on her stomach and connecting it with news of the babies helped the whole situation not feel so weird. “How are you feeling, Y/N?” the doctor asked.

“Pretty okay, actually. A little bit of back pain and occasional morning sickness, but not much else,” she responded happily.

“Dr. Boucher,” Spencer started, eager to hear more about his soon-to-be-children, “are you able to tell us their genders?”

She looked towards Spencer, beaming, like this was the best part of her job. “As a matter of fact, Doctor, I can. How do you feel about having two bouncing baby boys?”

\--------------------

The next seven weeks consisted of more morning sickness, even more back pain, nursery painting, crib-building, more than a little bit of panicking, and many, many discussions about the names of their two boys.

“So, we’ve decided, right? Because I’m about to start painting their names above their cribs?” Spencer said, looking back at his wife, who was sitting in a rocking chair, lightly cradling her baby bump.

“Definitely,” she sighed, closing her eyes and smiling, “Spencer Derek and Aaron Michael.”

Y/N was tired, worn, her hair was a mess, her eyes were drawn and she was living in baggy clothes, but to Spencer she had never looked more beautiful than she had in the past few months. He walked over to her, kissed her on the forehead and bent down to pat her stomach. “I can’t wait to meet you,” he whispered, kissing her stomach. “I love you boys.”  
\--------------------

The day after Spencer had painted the boys’ names on the nursery walls, they had yet another appointment at the doctor’s office. Y/N still hadn’t felt much movement, some yes, but she honestly couldn’t tell if it was the boys moving, or if it was normal gastrointestinal issues.

The obstetrician assured her as soon as she walked in the door that it was completely normal not to feel much just yet - the coming weeks would more than make up for it. Spencer and Y/N collectively breathed a sigh of relief, although Spencer was, of course, aware of every milestone his wife and the babies would endure, it was still nice to here it from the doctor herself.

Dr. Boucher left the room to gather the results of her urine test and came back to check her blood pressure and scan the babies. “Well, good news is that the babies are looking good. They are relatively the same size and everything is developing as it should,” she rattled off, as if she had something else to say.  
“Doctor?” Spencer inquired, noticing the same hesitance in her voice that his wife did.

“I don’t want to worry you. The babies look great. However, the results of your urine test and your heightened blood pressure indicate that you have preeclampsia.”

Y/N’s face dropped. She wasn’t a doctor, but she was well aware of preeclampsia, given that a friend of hers had miscarried because of it, and she was only pregnant with one child. She looked back at her husband for some kind of reassurance, feeling like the world was about the crumble beneath her. “It’s going to be okay,” he soothed unconvincingly. “There are medications and diet changes that can be used to help, right?” he motioned toward the doctor.  
“Absolutely,” she replied. “I’m going to start you on Methyldoma for high-blood pressure and magnesium sulfate to help prevent seizures.”

Y/N began to tear up, worrying more than ever before about the fate of her babies, which was when the doctor leaned over to lend an assuring hand. “I have had women, pregnant with twins, or more, that have had preeclampsia and gone home with their healthy babies. You’re going to be okay.”  
Minutes later, she left the room to leave the worrying parents to process the newest information.

Spencer gathered his wife in his arms. “Just breathe deeply,” he said, taking her face in his hands. “We’re all going to make it through this.”  
\--------------------

Although the weeks since they’d heard about Y/N’s preeclampsia had been fraught with nervousness, the new parents and growing babies were all still in good health, given increased prenatal visits, medication, a diet change and deep-breathing sessions arranged by Spencer at least twice a day. Thankfully, just mere days after the diagnosis, they’d felt the babies’ first kicks, which had grown to what felt like fist fights in there. Twenty-eight weeks along - between nine and twelve weeks to go, depending on symptoms and the health of both mother and babies.

Spencer was in the kitchen cooking dinner as he had been every night he was home, allowing Y/N to rest as often as possible. He called her in to the dining room for dinner and was greeted to his growing wife yelling at her stomach, “Don’t make me come in there!” she yelled down her shirt.  
Spencer laughed, “Are they fighting again?” 

“Yes!” she said, rubbing her stomach and trying to soothe the pain. “They are gonna be a handful when they get out.”

He snorted. None of that mattered. All that mattered is that his boys and his wife were healthy. They were almost there.

\--------------------

At 34 weeks, Y/N couldn’t possibly get much bigger. She had been off from teaching at the university for two weeks and would be for the foreseeable future, but staying homebound and practically bedridden for the rest of the pregnancy was out of the question unless the doctor required it - and she hadn’t. So, Y/N had decided to make her way into the BAU to have lunch with her husband and the team, just for something to do.

“Hi, honey,” she said, waddling in to the conference room. She had intended to bend down to kiss her husband, but her stomach wouldn’t allow for bending anymore. “I can’t bend,” she laughed. “Get up here and kiss me.”

After giving his beloved a kiss on the lips, Spencer went to pick up the food they’d ordered from the Italian place they frequented. While he was gone, Y/N caught up with the team. Baby talk and baby prep had kept her from talking to them much in the past months and she missed them. They were her friends too.

“You okay?” JJ asked, noticing that Y/N looked a little clammy.

She was in a little bit of extra pain, but at this point it was nothing she couldn’t handle. “Yea, I’m good,” she replied, “There’s just a wrestling match going on in my stomach right now.”

“We’re almost there,” she heard Spencer say, returning with their lunch.

As Y/N stood up to stretch out her legs, she felt weak. The distant scream of her name from her husband’s lips was the last thing she remembered.  
\--------------------

The minute Y/N hit the floor, Spencer knew what was wrong. His wife’s convulsing body was as out of control as his mind, as he screamed for the team to call an ambulance.

She was rushed to the hospital, having suffered a moderate-to-severe seizure, and upon arrival, Spencer was greeted with the news he had been dreading the entire pregnancy.

“Dr. Reid?” a young physician asked, approaching the nervous father. “Your wife’s seizure has caused her to go into early labor. As she is unable to answer us right now, you have to tell us whether it’s ok to deliver your babies now.”

He grabbed his head in agony, wondering what he should do. Delivering them now could hurt them, but it could hurt her more. Having anesthesia in her system while she was already unconscious could hurt her - or worse.

“What do I do?” he cried to his teammates, who were all standing nearby.

Everyone looked on in fear and heartache, not knowing what to say. But JJ, a mother herself, looked at him and asked, “What would Y/N want?”  
“She’d want me to save the boys...even if that means she’s at risk.”

\--------------------

After much deliberation, Spencer made the gut-wrenching decision to save his babies, even if that meant losing his wife. It wasn’t what he wanted - he wanted none of this, but Y/N would have done anything to bring the boys into the world safely.

Just an hour after the decision was made, the surgeon came out of the operating room. “Dr. Reid,” he began, not betraying what he was about to say in his voice, “The boys are out safely. They are a little underweight and underdeveloped, but they’ll be okay.” Spencer breathed a slight sigh as his family supported him from behind.

“What about Y/N?” he breathed quietly, tears brimming from the corners of his eyes.

“I’m sorry, Dr. Reid. Your wife has fallen into a coma.”

\--------------------

The love of his life was in a coma - and she might never come out of it. The only thing that had kept him sane the past few days was his sons. His beautiful boys - what might be his only reminder of the love he shared with his wife. They were slightly premature, but they were healthy. It destroyed him that they might never be able to meet their mother.

The doctors kept telling him that the longer she was out, the less likely she was to wake up and that he might have to let her go.

“No,” he said sternly, the harshness in his voice surprising his teammates as much as himself. Fatherly and husbandly love was coursing through him, not allowing him to give in to fear. “I’m not giving up on her. She’s going to come out of this and we’re all going to go home.” 

As the doctor turned away to return to his patient, Spencer practically crumbled to floor in a heap of tears, held up by his son’s namesakes.  
\--------------------

For another three days, six since his boys were born and his wife had nearly taken from him, Spencer and the team practically lived in the hospital. The team only left to grab clothes and various other things for Spencer because he was glued to her side.

He sat in her room at her side, holding her hand in his own. Forlorn, he looked at his team and then turned to the doctor. “Do you think you can wheel the boys’ incubators in here? I feel like them being nearby might help her.” He was grasping at straws, and he knew it, but the doctor relented, noticing the desperation in his eyes. It wouldn’t hurt the babies, and it would make Spencer feel like he wasn’t losing control.

The mood in the room instantly lifted when the babies were wheeled in, smiles creeping upon the faces of grateful aunts and uncles who were happy to have two new boys to dote on. Spencer tried his best to smile as he walked over to the babies. “This is what she wanted,” he thought to himself. But not hearing her voice was tearing him apart.

“Spencer...” Y/N murmured, startling her husband.

“Y/N!” he practically screamed. “You’re okay! Can you open your eyes?”

“Where are the boys?” she croaked. “Are they okay? Please tell me they’re okay?”

There wasn’t a dry eye in the room as Spencer cried to his wife, “Baby, open your eyes. They’re in here right now. They’re perfectly healthy.”  
At that her eyes shot open, blatantly weeping, “Oh thank God! Wheel them over here, please!”

Morgan and JJ wheeled the incubators over to her bedside, allowing her to reach inside and touch her precious boys. “I love you so much,” she cried.

Matching his wife’s cries, Spencer bent down to take her lips in his own, thankful more than ever before for his life and luck. “We’re all going to be okay. We can all go home.”


End file.
